1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system configured to sense abnormal driving of a vehicle and provide a warning to a driver, and more particularly, to an abnormal driving state determination and warning system which determines a driving state of a driver based on a vehicle location information and automatically outputs a warning message to the driver when the system senses a dangerous situation without adding an additional component to the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traffic accidents can occur for many different reasons, among them being driver negligence and unexpected risks due to the road conditions. Among the factors, a couple of the most common causes are speeding or drowsiness. These conditions can cause serious accidents leading to personal injury or even death.
In an effort to solve the problem, major automobile manufacturers continue to develop various new systems for assisting driver's in safe vehicular operation and apply these new systems to the vehicles.
Some manufactures have developed techniques which are able to determine when the driver is becoming drowsy by sensing a driver's reactions and movement using a camera or monitoring the driver's pulse through a sensor.
When using the above described camera method, the camera photographs the driver's face via a camera installed inside a vehicle, processes the photo and analyzes the photo to recognize drooping and blinking patterns of the driver's eyelids and movement of the driver's pupils, and determines whether the driver is becoming drowsy based on the recognized result.
In the pulse monitoring technique, the driver's pulse is used to determine whether the driver is becoming drowsy based on the reduction in the driver's pulse which is often reduces as people fall asleep.
However, these previous techniques require very complicated and complex components such as the sensors and processors for detecting the driver's pulse rate and performing the analysis algorithm thereof or the camera for capturing the movement of pupil, hardware for processing the photographed images, and analysis algorithms thereof, are required. In addition, even when these components are included, only the abnormal driving due to the drowsy driving can be detected so that it is economically inefficient in comparison with its intended result compared to the cost required to implement the system